Phenomenally unique venue but underhanded owners
1.0The low score for this property is purely based on the owners and NOT the property itself. I've been booking products via Booking.com for over a decade, but never met such underhanded people, especially the lady, in my years of travelling locally. I'm expecting a sarcastic response to my rating from the owner(s), but I think future travellers to this venue need to be aware of who they are dealing with before they book. Here are some of my observations:
1) A deposit of R350 is required to stay here, in case of any damage to the property, which is reasonable. Wherever I have travelled, I have looked after each place as if it is my own. Sadly, I suffer from occasional nose bleeds, especially when I change altitude. As I lay down to sleep, my nose started to bleed, which I noticed within a few seconds. Sadly, by then, a small blood stain developed on the pillow, about 2cm x 2cm in size. I immediately tried to rub it off, but blood is blood, and without any cleaning agents, it was the best I could do. For this reason, the owners kept back my entire deposit, even though this is not property damage and is something that can be washed out in a washing machine with a bit of detergent, and some vanish, which is something that I assume they have when washing all the beddings after each stay. a day after we left, I sent the lady my bank details for the deposit refund, and she didn't even bother to respond, and I was left in the dark about what happened to my deposit. Luckily, Booking.com sent me a message after inquiring, telling me of her actions.
2) Since we were so isolated and travelling from one place to another on our roadtrip, I thought it would be a great idea for the venue to organise 3 braai packs for the three of us to make our stay a bit more convenient. Although the owners agreed to provide us with one, the cost of it was astonishing. The braai packs contained 6 chops from Pick 'n Pay (about R250), a small Greek salad, and 6 braaibroodjies.
− All in all, this wouldn't have been more than R350, with the wood and paraffine teabags which come from the farm. However, our bill was a shocker of R1150. They also included a R450 petrol fee to go to the nearest town. If this had been communicated to us, we could have bought our own food. Mind you, I let them know of this requirement over a month before our arrival and they could have gotten the stuff when they did their own shopping. Keep in mind they advertised a fridge, but it doesn't work, and we used it as a cupboard.
3) The road from the farm is impassable with a normal car. We luckily drove a 4x4, but keep in mind that, from previous messages, the property will charge you R400 to drive you about R5km to the cave and back if you don't have a hardy vehicle for the road. This is also a hidden cost to be aware of.
4) The property is infested with rodents, so keep all your food in closed compartments. My mother was so scared of a rodent-type creature running around the living room at night that we all cowered and slept in one bedroom to avoid this thing jumping into our bed. There was also a giant spider in the bedroom, but that's understandable in the wild.
5) Although it says on the Booking that the venue is dog friendly with no charges, the lady wanted to charge R200 for each dog (2) when we arrived. After much deliberation, she backed off on this request.
6) The lady also requested that we buy her some personal things from the nearest town for her use, which, out of courtesy, I refused to charge her for, even though we decided to make a U-turn and go back to town to get this for her.
7) There is a 3-4 page rules and regulations form that you sign when you get there. Make sure you read it all carefully so she doesn't pull a fast one on you and withhold your deposit.
All in all, an outstanding venue with so much potential but with wrong people running it. In close to 15 years of booking with Booking.
